Electro-pop with dark edge from Toy Soldier

Toy Soldier come to Monroe’s Live on Saturday, April 4.  Hailing from Cork but based in Dublin, the band are Fionnuala Curran, Cian Walsh and Fergal McCarthy. Fionnuala is the lead singer and, given that she’s in an electro-pop band, she has a surprise in store when she lists her influences.

“Growing up as young girl I would have listened to a lot of [country star] Tina Charles. Mam would have her on the radio a lot,” Fionnuala says. “And Queen of course, Freddie Mercury. I love Kate Bush, and more current people like Lana Del Rey.  People who use their voice like an instrument, I admire that idea.”

As a vocalist Fionnuala has to pitch her voice over Cian and Fergal’s soaring beats and riffs. Is this a challenge?

“I think definitely – a challenge in a good way,” she says. “Before I joined the band I was more used to country and singer-songwriters kind of vocals. With an electronic sound, you have to change your voice to adapt to that.

“I think there’s so much to be said for a breath-controlled vocal,” she adds. “A lot of the time singers just give it everything. They pour their whole soul into the vocal, which is great, but I think with electronic music the beauty is it’s a held-back vocal. It’s coming from a genuine place, but there’s a mystique.”

Electro-pop bands like Depeche Mode, at their best, were driven by one chief songwriter. Do Toy Soldier follow this template, or is it more collaborative?

“Up until recently it was Cian who’d write the songs and then we’d just jam it out,” Fionnuala says. “But a few months ago, for the new EP we decided we were going to collaborate. Anyone who song-writes will say it happens in different ways.  Sometimes Cian will start with a riff, I’ll think of a melody and Fergal with come up with a beat. There are different ways, but I get inspired lyrically by what I hear them play.”

For more, see this week’s Connacht Tribune.